It happens once or twice every century,
almost like clockwork. Every now and then,
things get so volatile that the most basic
levels of physical security become a concern
to people who have the most to lose. When
things go very wrong, the wealthy become
large, attractive targets, and that is a
very dangerous thing. Think about what
happened to the wealthy families of Russia
when Lenin took over, or those of Poland
when Hitler came calling. It is foolish to
imagine that it has magically stopped, and
why would it, because modern politicians are
surpassingly wise and noble?

No one knows the future, of course, and that
is precisely the point. The world has
recently become unstable. So, will some
societies break down? And what will happen
when they do? Once again, those who have the
most on the line are forced to consider such
questions, and to prepare accordingly. Some
have decided to do little or nothing, being
confident that they will be able to “see it
coming,” and get out of the way. Others are
less assured and have decided to prepare.

THE STAGES OF GRIEF

Most of us are now familiar with the five
stages of grief. They may not apply to each
of us equally, but they are fairly
universal:

1.
Denial

2.
Anger

3.
Bargaining

4.
Depression

5.
Acceptance

This is important just now, because the easy
world we’ve become accustomed to over the
past several decades may be ending. That is
not a pleasant thought, but those of us who
have responsibilities do not have the luxury
of avoiding this truth. Whether the easy
times are over or not, we cannot simply look
away because it is uncomfortable. We must
deal with reality as it is.

What all of this means is that we have to
push ourselves through denial and the rest.
We’re here, we’re responsible, and we will
have to take some sorts of action. Unless,
of course, we believe the easy times will go
on forever, which not many of us really do.

Quite a few heads of wealthy families are
beginning to take action. The ones we talked
to were looking at some fairly dark
scenarios, which seem justified by recent
events, such as almost half of the French
people saying that kidnapping their employer
would be a fine thing to do. That is
positively frightening; and if they say that
in our current recession, what happens when
unemployment doubles or triples? The
situation could get very ugly, and very
quickly.

THE WORST SCENARIOS

One of the worst scenarios is massive public
unrest; precisely the kind that could come
from masses of people who think their
employers and “the rich” should suffer for
their unhappiness. What can one family do
against a mob of hundreds or thousands of
angry people?

The answer, says PRC Associates, a
London-based, private risk management firm,
lies in preparation. “We can address almost
any threat, if the client gives us time to
prepare for it,” says Behrooz Nezhad,
Executive Vice President of the firm.

Asked what preparations would look like,
Nezhad shows me a brochure for his HESTAR
product. (HESTAR stands for Hot
Extraction
To Sterile Area & Resurrection,
which certainly sounds serious to me.)

HESTAR, a three-phase security system, is
designed to whisk one’s family to safety
whenever the breaking down of law and order
is imminent or underway. The extraction
phase, for example, includes the following:

A Fully
Armoured Vehicle to take the
clients to nearest sea harbour.

A Landing Craft
to load the vehicle on board and head
for
International Waters.

A pre arranged safe haven to offload the
vehicle and drive to a mountain hideout.

If that sounds vaguely familiar to you, it
may be because you saw a Hollywood version
of it in the film, The Da Vinci Code.
PRC’s real version, of course, is less
flashy and a lot more serious. The people
involved in the extraction, for example,
would not be 60ish banker types (as in the
film), but a team including ex-Special
Forces operators.

Nezhad doesn’t want to reveal all the
details publicly, but his system includes
carefully cached supplies, specialized
communication technologies, encryption,
long-term storage of documents and assets,
and lots of survival gear: Food, clothing,
medicine, weapons, water purification and
more.

The cost of such a system, of course, is
substantial. PRC reiterates that every
client’s needs will differ, but they did
tell me that their system runs well into
seven figures, and that there are also
maintenance personnel required. The system
must be operable, of course, at the moment
it is needed.

THE SECOND ERROR

While the first and most critical error is
to close one’s mind to the possibility of
bad times, a second critical error can be
almost as serious: To prepare for the
previous war.

During the
Cold War
many wealthy families built nuclear survival
shelters on their properties. The investment
gave them peace of mind, knowing that in
case of a nuclear war, they could survive
and re-emerge to a
second chance
in life.

Nuclear war was thankfully avoided (though
quite narrowly by some accounts), but the
shelters served their purposes just the
same: Their owners could relax, knowing that
the shelter was available, and that in the
worst case, they would survive.

PRC Associates says that they’ve had a
couple of clients who wondered if fallout
shelters might be useful against terrorism
and civil unrest. “Absolutely not,” says
Nezhad. “Shelters
may have protected families from the
nuclear war
but they wouldn’t stand the aggression and
siege of hungry and violent mobs. Eventually
the supplies and ammunition would run out
and one has to come up to face the threat.
Wouldn’t it be better if families could
safely leave the danger zones and hide in a
secret place for as long as the mayhem and
chaos last?”

THE ODDS

Ultimately, the question comes down to your
judgment of the odds. If you knew for sure
that the worst would happen on a certain
date, you’d be fully prepared for it, no
matter the expense. But if you knew nothing
would ever happen, spending money would be
silly.

So, which will it be?

Again, none of us know the future, but if
the past is any guide, the odds are
considerably above zero. It may be time to
return to an old and ugly question: “What
if?”